Meet the Photojournalists

Oded Balilty is an Israeli photographer based in Jerusalem. He has been with the AP for 10 years, working in both China and the Middle East. His coverage of the standoff between Israeli settlers and the police won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. He has also received recognition for his work from the World Press Photo and the Photo of the Year awards.

Chris Carlson has been a staff photographer at the AP in Southern California for the past 6 years, Prior to that, he has been on the staff of the Orange County Register where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage. During his career, he has been on assignment in over 40 countries.

Jeff Chiu has been with the AP for eight years, covering national politics, sports and general assignment from the San Francisco bureau. He worked in general assignment for newspapers for six years before joining AP.

Richard Drew has been with the AP for 37 years. He is a specialist in sports and the financial world, especially the New York Stock Exchange. His picture of a man falling from the collapsing World Trade Center on 9/11 became an iconic symbol for that tragedy.

Khalil Hamra was born in Kuwait 1979 to Palestinian parents and grew up in Qatar, Egypt and Palestine. He is now based in Gaza. His work in the Israel-Gaza war won the Robert Capra 2009 Gold Medal for war photo coverage. Hamra recently covered the revolution in Egypt.

Julie Jacobsen is an AP staff photographer now based in New York. In 10 years working for AP, she has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, four Olympics, the World Series and Super Bowl, and the Pan Am Games. Before AP, she worked for the Kansas City Star for eight years. Her photo of a dying soldier won a World Press Photo recognition in 2009.

Mark Lennihan has worked for the AP for over 20 years in New York. Although he specializes in business and the economy, he has covered hurricanes and cyclones, presidents, popes, and prime ministers and the World Series, Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and basketball championships.

Bebeto Matthews has been with the AP for nearly 20 years and is based in New York. He has covered presidential conventions, volcanoes, the Olympics, Princess Diana’s funeral, the 9/11 aftermath and professional sports in the West Indies. His long-term project “Sophia,” about a child suffering from a rare bone disorder, won a top multimedia award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Lefteris Pitarakis began with the AP in 1998, working in the Athens bureau. He has covered political unrest and war in Kosovo and Montenegro during the NATO war, the Israel-Palestinian conflict from 2000-2005, clashes and unrest in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, plus the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Laurent Rebours is the Paris AP photo bureau chief and the team leader of AP photojournalists for the annual Tour de France. His assignments have taken him around the world and he has covered subjects from the Iraq wars to French fashion and politics for the AP.

Marcio Jose Sanchez has been with the AP in San Francisco for nearly 10 years. During his career he has covered the World Cup in South Africa, hurricanes in Central America, sports features in the Dominican Republic, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in Canada. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and National Geographic.

Tara Todras-Whitehill is an American photojournalist who has worked extensively in Egypt and is for the AP in Israel. She is a specialist in women’s issues but has worked in all general assignment phases. In 2011, she filed from Cairo during the overthrow of the Mubarak government. She has since left the AP in order to live in Egypt and freelance from there.